Modern aircraft, such as helicopters and the like, include flight mode selector assemblies which enable the flight crew to select various flight characteristics for the aircraft. Flight modes will vary, depending on the type of aircraft, but will generally include altitude preselect switches whereby the pilot can preselect an altitude at which the aircraft will fly; approach preselect switches whereby the pilot can select various ground approach options; altitude hold switches wherein the pilot can maintain an altitude by means of external barometric air pressure readings; and other options too numerous to mention.
Conventional aircraft flight mode selectors include dedicated "on-off" switches and switch indicator lights, with the switch panel being hard wired to the flight control computer. Each switch on the flight mode selector panel controls one facet of the flight mode, thus the more sophisticated the flight mode selector system is, and the more flight mode facets there are, the more complex, bulky and weighty the flight mode selector system becomes. With conventional flight mode selector systems, when additional flight mode options are to added to the system, then additional hard wired switches and on-off indicator lights must be added to the cockpit console. It will be readily appreciated that the addition of further flight control hard wired switches and indicator lights to a cockpit console, as required by conventional systems, is undesirable due to weight, space and complexity constraints.
It would be highly desirable to provide an aircraft flight mode selector and control system which is more compact than present systems; allows the inclusion of a greater number of flight mode options than present systems; and can be augmented with additional selections with minimal effort.